Telangana announces Rs 10 lakh for families of ‘martyrs’

Hyderabad, Jul 16: The Telangana government on Wednesday decided to provide Rs.10 lakh financial assistance each to the families of those who laid down their lives for creation of the separate state since 1969.

The state cabinet also decided to give job to one eligible family member of the “martyrs”. The government will also bear medical expenses of the families and ensure free education to their children. If the families are landless agriculturists, they will each be given three acres of land.

After a six-hour-long meeting of the cabinet, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao made the announcements at a news conference Wednesday. The cabinet discussed 43 issues and took decisions to implement most of the poll promises made by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).

The cabinet decided to lift all cases booked by the police against those who participated in the Telangana movement since 2001. Rao announced the government will immediately implement its promise to waive all farm loans of up to Rs.1 lakh. This will benefit over 39 lakh families and will entail a burden of Rs.19,000 crore.

Fulfilling another poll promise, the TRS government announced that salaries of state government employees will be hiked to make them at par with the wages of central government staff. It also declared a special increment for the employees on the occasion of formation of the state. The chief minister said services of all contract employees will be regularized.

The government also announced Kalyana Lakshmi scheme under which Rs.50,000 will be paid each for the marriage of Dalit and tribal girls. The cabinet also decided to constitute two committees headed by retired judges of the high court to consider raise in the reservation quota for minorities and tribals.

It announced Rs.1,000 crore for minority welfare and decided to constitute minority and tribal commissions. Reiterating that Telangana government will reimburse fee of only Telangana students, Rao said the scheme will be implemented on the basis of nativity with 1956 as the cut-off date.

The scheme for free education from KG to PG will be named after TRS ideologue Jayashankar. An agriculture university will also be named after the late leader. A veterinary university will be set up and it will be named after former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao.

Three-acre land for poor Dalit families, Rs.1,500 monthly pension for handicapped, masterplan to make Hyderabad a global city and drive against encroachments in Hyderabad were the other major decisions taken by the cabinet.